The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1887-08-17


fore rs with an individuality, picturesque
ness and faithfulness of delineation. TN,
surpassed by any of her coternporaries, a
people whose social characteristics are as
unique and fascinating as their provincial
isms are new and entertaining. Miss Grace
King, of New Orleans, in her Monsieur
Motto" has shown a power of delineation
fully equal to that of Mr.. Cable. Daddy
Dave by Southern lady. equals in its
portraiture of slave character and planta-
ton life anything from the pen of Nelson
Page or Chandler Harris. In the mono
graphs of Miss Frances Baylor, Miss
Amelie Riyes, Mrs. Burton Harrison and
Others, we see what a wide field is open in
this department of light literature, whilst
the exquisite poetry of Mrs. Margaret j.
Preston, and the historical sketches of Miss
MagiH and Others, give us glimpses into
fields of higher character at the South
which are white for the harvest, and which
opens invitingly TO the heart and hand of
cultivated Southern woman. There are
chapters of yet unwritten history in the
early settlement of our Southern country,
full OF knightly valor, of perilous adven-
ture, and of thrilling romance whilst
every battlefield in our late unsuccessful
struggle, makes its own silent but eloquent
I
historian TO record the deeds of valor and
heroic self-sacrifce of our fallen comrades
who sleep IN unknown and unrecognized
graves. For this work let womau's heart
and hand receive their proper training in
our Southern schools.
'. There are many other reasons which
suggest themselves for the th6rouch
framing In the interest of which nv plea
Is made Let me content myself with but
SINGLE one more "a brief but potent arpu-
ment for woman's culture, drawn from her
peculiar relations to our common Christi
anlty. The times are full of clements an
tagonistic to Christian faith So long as
the South was by its peculiar domestic in
stitutions isolated in great measure from
other sections of our common country. the
errors and isms of which New England is
SO fertile, found little opportunity of root
ing themselves in our soil but under our
present system, with the great influx of
enterprise and capital that shall build up
our material resources, we must expect
the immigration OF those forms of scepti-
cIsm and infidelity that are so current in
what Is known as the advanced thought
of the present day. We are to be con-
fronted with the New Theology which
eliminates from Scripture all the distinctive
points OF the orthodoxy in which we have
been reared; with the Higher Criticism
which dissects the book of Genesis into
multitude of traditionary legends of dis
tiuet but unknown authorship, and reduces
Deuteronomy to the level of pious fraud
in which an unknown writer of the Post
Hezekian era, uses the name of Moses to
give authority and sanction to his work
with the Philosophic Rationalism which
explains away all that is miraculous in the
Scripture records; with theory of inspi-
ration that reduces the Divine influence
upon the sacred writers to the same level
with that upon Homer in the composition
OF the llad, or Milton in the writing of
the Paradise Lost with an anti Sabbath
rlanlsm which threatens to drive the wheels
OF commercial progress ruthlessly over
Gods murdered Sabbath and. last, but
not least, with a scientific apnosticism
which practically excludes God from the
universe, and makes man the offspring of
a tad-pole, which is, in turn. the self
evolved product of some infinitesimaI atom
of star-dust. We have to face this incom-
ing tide of error, and the immoralities
which must surely follow in its wake. As
a break-water against it | know of no
influence save that of the preaching
of the Gospel, so potent as that of the
devout and cultivated Christian mother.
laying broad and deep in the mind and
heart of her boy, during the plastic pc
nod of childhood, those foundations of in
teillSnt faith and earnest conviction which
cannot pe-haken by the sophisms and va
garles of after yors. Who can gauge the
moulding influence oIthe mother upon her
boy: His earliest teacher, m most patient
and loving disciplinarian, not an.he teach
ers who may come after her, nor al tba
colleges and universities through which he
may pass, can equal the influence of this
first, best, truest friend. And what shall
we say of the influence of the wifes There
Is many stern man who stands amid the
storms of life like some unshaken and inn
pregnable rock. Men think of him as all
of granite. They see not the constant
presence with him in thought of one whose
sweet voice whispers hope in the times of
despondeney, whose soft hand is upon his
brow in moments of fierce anger, whose
gentle pleading whispers to his soul in hours
of temptation, one tear of sorrow upon
whose cheek, one smile of appreciation up
on whose loving face can move him to his
souFs centre as no frown of opposition, or
sneer of ridicule, or smile of adulation can
ever do.
1t is thus that by the gentle cords of her
pure
and trusting nature, she moulds the strong
man, and moves the arm that moves the
levers of all social and political power
1t is this potent influence which we crave
on behalf of Christianity. And that il
may be welded most effectively, woman
must be thoroughly educated, Her intel
lectual powers must be developed. She
must be fitted to grapple intelligently
with the varied forms of infdelity and
error. She must commend herself to the
intelligence as we'll as the love of those
whom she is to influence. With intellec-
tual endowments properly cultivated, and
that womanly devotion to Christianity
which made her "last at the Cross and first
at the Sepulchre," her home will be a cita-
del for the defense of the true faith, and
the family circle an arsenal where the
weapons shall be furnished that are to be
mighty through God to the pulling down
of the strongholds of error
Entertaining such views as these, have
felt it both an honor and privilege to
have my name and words thus associated with
with the commencement exercises of Maury
Institute. For here we have an institution
founded for the express purpose of carry
ing out the aims of thorough intellectual dis
cipline and training for which have been
pleading an institution committed by the
very law of its being to eschew all the false
methods which | have stigmatized, and tc
combine with other institutions that could
name, in lifting higher the standard OF
woman's education, and giving her a more
thorough equipment for her great life
work. That this institution, and every
other that sets before it this lofty ideal
may be blessed with the prosperity and
patronage it so richly deserves, must be
the devout wish of every true patriot, and
especially those WAC, like your speaker OF
| to-day. recognize in THOROUGHLY educated
.sonadnhood the Inspiration and hope Of n.
| .Sniah